Losing a parent is undeniably a tragic event for children of any age. But when dealing with the death of their parents, many adults may reevaluate their priorities and put parental expectations behind them. Adult children may be inspired to lose weight, improve their health by seeking help for depression or anxiety, try new things and learn to make their own well-being a priority.

The world witnessed a stunning example of this phenomenon this week in Susan Boyle. A 47-year-old woman from Scotland who cared for her widowed mother for ten years, Boyle, who had previously sung only in church or for friends, became an Internet celebrity after her stunning audition on reality show "Britain's Got Talent."

Douglas home writes that “being a carer isn't a glamorous life. ... [e]ven those who start out with a beauty routine and an interest in clothes find themselves reverting to the practicality of a tracksuit and trainers. Fitness plans get interrupted and then abandoned. Weight creeps on.”

Regarding Boyle’s unremarkable physical appearance on the show, Douglas home called it “evidence of a life lived selflessly; of a person so focused on the needs of another that they have lost sight of themselves.”

And yet all those years, Boyle's mother encouraged her to sing, and even suggested that she enter “Britain's Got Talent.” Boyle wasn’t able to muster the courage to do so until two years after her mother’s death.

Safer writes that the death of a parent has more potential than any other in life to “help us become more fulfilled human beings—wiser, more mature, more open, less afraid.”

Seeger felt that her parents, who had a difficult marriage and not many friends, were overly dependent on her. “I didn't have the courage to go against them, so I didn't spread my wings and fly when others did,” she told CNN.

Author Debra Umberson, a sociology professor at The University of Texas at Austin, however, feels that adult parental loss can be more difficult than many realize; adult orphans have been ignored, she says, because parental loss is universal, “and therefore perceived as a normal process.”

In her 2003 book, "Death of a Parent: Transition to a New Adult Identity," Umberson says some adults may have a higher risk of depression and alcoholism, and neglect their health once they lose a parent. “Perhaps most striking is the remarkable change that adults experience in their sense of self,” she writes.

While she concentrated on the difficulty of adult parental loss, Umberson also found in her reasearch that some people did experience relief at the death of a parent. She said those experiences were most likely to occur in people who grew up with "an extremely critical parent."

The bottom line is that the loss of a parent can be a complex process for an adult, said Benyamin Cirlin, executive director at New York's Center for Loss and Renewal, in a July 2008 Healthline forum on the topic.

FindingDulcinea's Web Guide to Family and Relationships includes a section on dealing with death. The guide features Web sites that help with dealing with the loss of a loved one, as well as planning a funeral.

A WebMD article discusses how to broach the subject of death with loved ones "before the crisis occurs." According to the article, "Too often, these conversations don't take place until there is no time left for honest discussion, reflection and planning."